Reykjavík Grapevine - 15.07.2011, Blaðsíða 32

32
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 10 — 2011
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Opinion | Music Music | Live Review
FIGHT THE POWER!
Where have all the protest
songs gone?
Music, politics, ideas.
You don’t really hear much
about that nowadays do you? Right
now I’m reading two books about
politics in music, ‘Girls To The Front’
by Sara Marcus, about the Riot Grrrl
feminist punk movement in the early
‘90s, and ‘33 Revolutions Per Min-
ute: A History Of Protest Songs’ by
Dorian Lynskey, which weighs and
feels like a brick that should be
lobbed at your local neighbourhood
riot police.
Both books show that one of music’s
prevailing characteristics is its ability
to galvanise and give people a voice or
a soundtrack against injustice or op-
pression. Music is also a handy way to
articulate different thoughts and ideas,
often delivered under the radar of a de-
cent melody or an infectious groove. But
despite a return of protest activism in
the West amid a global recession, and a
slew of popular uprisings in the Middle
East, are there any musicians out there
that are resonating with the causes that
are really affecting people today?
Take Iceland for example. It’s been
nearly 3 years since the Kreppocalypse
left deep rifts in society between the
haves and the have-nots. In the initial
weeks after the initial crash, radio sta-
tions such as X-i! 977 and Rás 2 insert-
ed well-known protest songs from the
‘60s and ‘70s into their playlists, such
as Neil Young’s ‘Ohio’ and The Clash’s
‘Straight to Hell’. But since the pots and
pans revolution, there seems to be a real
political disconnect between our cultur-
al ambassadors and the general public.

It’s not that Icelandic artists have been
quiet about the Kreppa. Numerous art-
ists have released songs that have dealt
with the Kreppa head on.
Some examples:
- ‘Let Them Bleed’ by Toggi, an uplifting
pop rock melody that masks some ex-
ceedingly vicious lyrics about politicians
and banksters.
- ‘Behind Closed Doors’ by rapper Au-
thentic The Exception,
a sample-heavy bom-
bastic tune about the
social fallout from the
crisis.
- Jónas Sigur!sson on
his current album ‘Allt
er eitthva!’, recorded
‘Skuldaólin’, about a fa-
ther drowning in debt,
and ‘Hleypi! mér út úr "essu part#i’
(“Help me out from this party”), about
the post-kreppa societal madness.
- Bjartmar og Bergrisarnir’s ‘Skr#tin
Veröld’ which is almost a concept album
post-Kreppa Iceland.
- Rapper Blazroca composed several
tracks on his album ‘Kópacabana’ that
cover the Kreppa and the protests, such
as ‘Reykjavík—Belfast’.
And that’s before we get to musi-
cians who’ve taken to activism and ac-
tual politics to get their message across,
such as Björk campaigning against the
selling off of the country’s natural re-
sources, troubadour Hör!ur Torfason,
who was instrumental in organising the
initial protests, and artists who’ve per-
formed at benefit concerts for causes
such as the Reykjavík 9.
WHERE’S THE RESONANCE?
So if artists are speaking out, then why
is it not resonating with the general
public? Perhaps it’s the musicians them-
selves. Many who’ve spoken out come
from a generation who started out in the
‘80s and ‘90s, who are linked to the pro-
test music of folk, rock and punk, and
still see the value of ideas and actions
through music. But many of this genera-
tion’s musicians are not as rooted with
such a history, more often than not fol-
lowing a bovine ‘hey, it’s all cool, we’re
just about the music’ consensus.
Or maybe it’s the songs themselves.
On June 19th, there was a ‘kreppa
songs’ protest, which saw people sing-
ing songs in support of the protests that
were happening in Europe. They even
has a version of ‘Ísland er land "itt’, with
new words written by famed novelist
Hallgrímur Helgason. Now compare that
to tracks such as of Rage Against The
Machine’s ‘Sleep Now In the Fire’ (which
was the soundtrack to the anti globalisa-
tion protests of the late ‘90s), or Lethal
Bizzle’s ‘Pow’ (which was omnipresent
in the recent student protests in the
UK), both intense songs with punching
rhythms and a strong anti authoritarian
nature. These days, a reworking of old
Icelandic songs just isn’t going to cut it.
But I have a feeling it’s more down to
the general apathy and coolness of the
public to traditional protest and protest
music itself. The internet is partially to
blame for this, with what Naomi Klein
calls ‘the release value nature of online
protest’, where people will vent anony-
mously in forums and join numerous
Facebook groups that acts like a cyber-
palliative, a short term catharsis that
saps the will to physically go out and
demand change. For example, at the
said ‘kreppa singing’ protest, despite
the noble sentiment of the protesters,
and receiving coverage from the press,
hardly anybody showed up. It had all the
atmosphere of an evangelical choir sing-
ing to indifferent tourists.
NOBODY CARES ABOUT YOUR
BORING POLITICS
But what’s more unsettling is that it
seems that younger people in Iceland
just don’t seem to care. As reported in
the last issue of the Grape-
vine, a recent study by Reyk-
javík University showed that
young people were more
likely to retreat to the warm
structural cocoon of family,
sports, state institutions and
looking good, than engag-
ing in cultural or intellectual
activities such as cinema,
playing music, or reading books. The
idea of engaging with youth about social
issues and politics nowadays seems in-
creasingly distant. Even when you actu-
ally have a person connecting with many
people, such as local comedian Steindi
Jr. who—with songs such as ‘Djamm í
kvöld’ and ‘Heima’—completely nails the
emptiness of much of Icelandic society,
people completely miss what he says,
instead seeming perfectly happy to bel-
low “WOOO YEAH! DJAMM Í KVÖLD!”
and marvel at how many celebrities he
can squeeze into his videos.
Espousing political and differing
views in music has always been fraught
with difficulties and with rabid discourse
on the internet, those that do often face
a beatdown that make musicians think
twice. But in all honesty, why should
musicians bother singing about issues if
the people they are performing to (and
that they affect) are too impassive to do
anything about them?
BOB CLUNESS
XXXXXXXXX S. ALESSIO TUMMOLILLO
(Is this thing on?)
“Since the pots and pans revolution,
there seems to be a real political disconnect
between our cultural ambassadors and
the general public”
Revolutionaries:
1. Woody Guthrie
2. The Clash
3. Rage Agains The Machine
4. Bubbi
Afrocubism graced the stage at Harpa
on June 28 to a packed theatre, and mu-
sically did not disappoint. Unfortunately,
when it comes to concerts, the music is
only part of the battle.
To the audience’s dismay, the show
started half an hour late (due to flight
issues) and when they finally did get
started Eliades Ochoa's guitar seemed
out of tune (or he was playing out of key,
which doesn’t seem feasible as he’s a
world class guitarist who once played
for Buena Vista Social Club). This did
not make for such a great start to such
a reputable band’s show. Another issue
was the fact that the music was a bit
static. There were no variations in tempo
or sound, and it started to become a bit
predictable and, at some points, even
boring.
This isn’t to say that the show didn’t
have its awe-inspiring moments. Watch-
ing the members of Afrocubism take
their diverse, culturally separate sounds
and meld them together to make music
so earthen that we might as well have
been sitting in a rainforest being washed
over by the sounds of nature—that was
a treat. It was much like standing over
the shoulder of a master watchmaker,
watching him put together the gears
and trinkets that make a clockwork.
Not to mention that at the end, during
the encore, Toumani asked the crowd
to dance, and anyone over the age of 35
delivered.
If it weren’t for the lack of diversity
in their set and the late start, Afrocub-
ism’s show would have been a world-
class one. Instead it came across as a
mixed bag: disappointing due to the tar-
diness and the stagnancy of the music,
but wonderful for the inner workings of
such a musically talented band. The ex-
perience still led me to assume that their
skill and sound are better appreciated
on a studio recording than a live show.
Afrocubism Harping
at Harpa
Cubo-Malian fusion in
Reykjavík
Who do you prefer, 'old Bubbi' with his revolutionary gusto and spirit, or 'new
Bubbi' with his uhm... new 'soul album'?